chickenhawkn.
/ˈtʃɪk(ᵻ)nhɔːk/, U.S. /ˈtʃɪkənˌhɔk/, /ˈtʃɪkənˌhɑk/ Chiefly U.S.
1. Any of several raptors, esp. hawks of the genera Accipiter and Buteo, that kill chickens.Quot. 1890 refers to the sparrowhawk, A. nisus, in northern England.
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the world > animals > birds > order Falconiformes (falcons, etc.) > [noun] > family Falconidae > genus Falco (falcon) > other types of
carrion-kite1581
chickenhawk?a1775
New Zealand falcon1781
shaheen1839
falconet1851
prairie falcon1858
Eleonora falcon1859
quail hawk1873
bush-hawk1882
longwing1964
the world > animals > birds > order Falconiformes (falcons, etc.) > family Accipitridae (hawks, etc.) > [noun] > genus Accipiter > accipiter nisus (sparrowhawk)
sparhawkc725
sperverc1330
musketa1398
sparrow-hawk1548
pigeon hawk1731
chickenhawk?a1775
keelie1808
spier-hawk?c1810
?a1775 W. Bartram Trav. Georgia & Florida ii., in Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. (1943) 33 165/1 The Black Hawk is about the size of the Chicken Hawk, they are all over a dark slate colour appearing perfectly black.
1890 J. Watson Nature & Woodcraft viii. 96 The freshly added Sparrow-hawk is by no means the only one of its kind, for there are four or five ‘blue-hawks’. ‘Chicken-hawk’ is another of the Keeper's names for the bird.
1958 J. Carew Wild Coast iii. 45 They saw a chicken hawk fighting with a grass snake.
2012 J. Bloom Free-range Chicken Gardens vii. 187/2 The term ‘chicken hawks’ often refers to three species: the red-tailed hawk, the Cooper hawk, and the sharp-shinned hawk, which are probably the most efficient chicken-hunting raptors.
2. slang. An older man who pursues boys or young men or (less commonly) girls or young women as sexual partners.
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1964 Lavender Lexicon Chicken hawk, a homosexual who shows interest in youthful persons as sex partners for the insertor role.
1975 K. Anger Hollywood Babylon 81/1 The ‘little’ women in Charlie's Hollywood career established his reputation as a chicken hawk.
1983 N. Thornburg Dreamland i. 13 All the johns and chickenhawks and other creeps.
2002 B. Landis & M. Clifford Sleazoid Express Introd. 1 Predatory chickenhawks spying on underage trade looked for pick-ups.
3. colloquial. A person who advocates military aggression but avoids, or has avoided, active military service. Cf. war-hawk n. at war n.1 Compounds 4, chicken n. 6.
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1965 Los Angeles Times 17 Mar. ii. 4/6 Hawks and doves argue about whether to fight in Vietnam or get out. Then there's the middle group, chicken hawks. They want someone else to do the fighting.
1986 Washington Post 29 May a23/5 The one group who may deserve the white feathers are the so-called ‘war wimps’ or ‘chicken hawks’—prominent Americans helping to spread war fever today who avoided service during Vietnam.
1993 USA Today (Nexis) 11 Feb. 12 a How generous of today's chicken hawks, sitting in fancy offices in Washington, to risk the lives of other people in Bosnia.
2004 Progressive Oct. 47/1 The chickenhawks with their multiple draft deferments intoning soberly about supporting the ‘brave men and women in uniform’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?a1775